In this blog I present the results of my research into the landowning families of the British Isles and the country houses which they owned. Comments, especially in the form of corrections, additional information or new illustrations, are very welcome. Please use the Contact Form in the right hand side bar to contact me privately or the comments facility at the bottom of the page to make a public comment.

Saturday, 30 March 2013

Thomas
Acton of Longnor acquired the manor of
Aldenham in 1465 and left it to his second son, John, who was in
possession by 1485. His descendant, Sir
Edward Acton (1600-59), 1st bt., was MP for Bridgnorth in the Short and Long Parliaments,
1640-44, until deprived of his seat for his Royalist sympathies, and was created
a baronet by King Charles I in 1644.

Sir
Edward Acton, 3rd bt., who was MP for Bridgnorth 1689-1705, rebuilt
the house at Aldenham in 1690-91, probably to the designs of the London
master-carpenter, William Taylor. He and his six brothers were noted for their exceptional stature; his brother Francis confessed to being the shortest of the seven, at a mere six foot two inches. In the next generation, Sir
Whitmore Acton, 4th bt., was noted for his good looks and for keeping a married woman as a mistress while still an Oxford undergraduate. He later built Acton Round Hall in 1713-14, probably
to the design of Francis Smith, shortly before he inherited Aldenham. An agreement of 1715 stipulated that his widowed aunt, Hester Acton, should ‘cohabitt and dwell with him’ and it is possible
that her money (she married two wealthy London merchants) largely paid
for the house. After Sir Whitmore died
in 1732 his widow Elizabeth (d. 1759) may have returned to Acton Round, as it is in the church
there that she and her late husband are commemorated by a monument designed by
T.F. Pritchard and erected in 1763; the house was subsequently used as a dower
house.

Sir Richard Acton, 5th bt., built new stables at Aldenham to the design of William Baker in 1751, but
died in 1791 leaving no surviving issue, whereupon the baronetcy and the
Aldenham estate passed to a descendant of the 2nd baronet’s second
son. This branch of the family led unusually colourful lives. John Acton (1710-66) became Commodore-in-Chief of the Adriatic fleet of the Holy Roman Empire, and plotted to capture Bengal for the Emperor; his elder brother, Edward Acton (1709-81) (father of the 6th bt.), was summoned, soon after qualifying as a doctor, to treat a sick friend at Besançon
in Burgundy. He settled there, set up practice, became a Catholic convert and married a local girl. Reputedly, when her mother realised his intentions, she hid the daughter in a local convent, but Acton sought appointment as medical adviser to all the local convents until he found and married her. Their descendants married and had interests across
Europe. Three of his sons entered the service of the King of Naples, and Sir John Acton (1736-1811), the 6th baronet, became a close
adviser to the royal family and ultimately Prime Minister of the Kingdom of
Naples, 1789-1808. He remained unmarried until 1800 when at the age of 64 he obtained special papal dispensation to marry his own niece, a girl of thirteen. This marriage, which even at the time was a sensation verging on scandal, was apparently planned by Queen Caroline of Naples and the girl's mother, Countess Berghe von Tripps, to keep outsiders from gaining political influence over the affairs of the kingdom and the fortune and property that Acton had amassed in Naples and Palermo. The match turned out unexpectedly well, producing three healthy - though not long-lived - children, including an heir to the English estates. In the difficult political circumstances of the Napoleonic wars, Acton was unable to realise his plan of retiring to Aldenham, but died in
Sicily in 1811, leaving a young family. His widow, still no more than 25, moved to London and brought up the children in England, but later had an affair - and further children - with the French foreign minister, the Comte de La Ferronays, and lived until 1873, a figure of legendary scandal.

Sir Richard Acton (1801-37), 7th bt., came into his inheritance in 1822, and in 1825-28 remodelled the house at Aldenham to the design of Edward Haycock and created a Catholic chapel in the grounds, reusing the facade of
a garden building. In 1832 he married
the only daughter of the 1st Duke of Dalberg, and in 1833 changed
his name to Dalberg-Acton. Between her
husband’s death and her second marriage to the 2nd Earl Granville in
1840, the Duchess made further alterations to the interior of Aldenham.

Sir John Dalberg-Acton (1834-1902), 8th bt., who inherited at the
age of three in 1837, became a famous Liberal politician and historian. He was ennobled in 1869 as 1st Baron Acton on Gladstone's recommendation. The wide European connections provided by his family background and his own marriage to an Austrian countess, gave him an usually broad outlook and informed his historical scholarship. About
1865 he added a large library (since demolished) to Aldenham to house his
collection of 70,000 books, but from 1876 he spent little time at Aldenham
because of his academic appointments.

The 2nd Baron, who inherited in 1902, pursued a diplomatic
career across Europe, but married the daughter of Thomas Henry Lyon of Appleton
Hall (Cheshire), and in 1919 changed his name to Lyon-Dalberg-Acton. His son, the 3rd Baron, inherited
in 1924 and married in 1931 the Hon. Daphne Strutt (d. 2003), a daughter of the
4th Baron Rayleigh. Although
brought up as a Protestant, she became an enthusiastic Catholic convert under
the influence of Monsignor Ronald Knox, who served as domestic chaplain at
Aldenham for a couple of years in the 1930s.

In the changed social and economic circumstances after the Second World
War, in 1947 Lord Acton sold Aldenham to his mother-in-law, Lady Rayleigh, who
had rented the estate since the 1920s, and emigrated to Rhodesia, where he
farmed until the unilateral declaration of independence in 1965. In 1970, he and his wife retired to
Majorca. Aldenham was sold in 1959 to Mr
& Mrs Christopher Thompson, who restored it, and now belongs to their
granddaughter, Mrs Hettie Fenwick. The 4th Baron Acton (1941-2010), lived
in London and on being elected as one of the hereditary peers to remain in the
House of Lords after reform, was created a Life Peer in 2000 as Baron Acton of
Bridgnorth; his only son is now the 5th Baron Acton.

Aldenham Park, Shropshire

The first known house on this
site was an irregular courtyard house, built for the Actons, who acquired the
estate in 1465. As recorded in a plan of
1625 which formed the basis for a painting made in 1756 after the house had
been rebuilt, it had a gatehouse and a hall placed unusually to one side of the
courtyard. Much of the house may have
been built or rebuilt for Walter Acton in the 1620s, although parts were
evidently earlier.

This house was demolished
in 1690 and rebuilt in a quiet Baroque manner as an eleven by seven bay block
around a courtyard. It was probably designed by William Taylor of London,
who was certainly consulted in the 1680s and rebuilt Minsterley church in 1688.

The west front has two short projecting wings
with hipped roofs; this and the north side are of coursed rubble and would
originally have been rendered. The show
fronts are the south and east sides, which are of ashlar.

The disparity of building materials has
previously led to suggestions that the ashlar facades are later, the work of
Sir Whitmore Acton, who inherited in 1716 and whose initials are on the
rainwater heads. Actually the whole
house is of one build, but Sir Whitmore altered the roof on these sides, so
that the hipped roof supported on a richly carved modillion cornice that survives
on the north and west was replaced by a parapet of contrasting brown
stone. Sir Whitmore probably also
substituted sash windows for casements throughout the house, but regrettably
these were altered later, with lowered sills and the insertion of plate
glass. The eleven bay south range contains
the best rooms, notably the dining room.

The central courtyard was preserved until 1825-28 when it was formed
into a large hall with Grecian ornaments, probably by Edward Haycock, but with
the active involvement of Sir Richard
Acton; many of the other interiors were altered at the same time, or between 1837 and 1840 when his widow occupied the house. In particular the entrance hall and the main
room above it have disappeared; the entrance now leads to a narrow corridor
into the central top-lit hall. The
staircase has strong twisted balusters, and must date from 1691, but the
present arrangement whereby it is top-lit must date from the 1820s.

An Ionic temple of c.1780 in the grounds was
converted into a chapel at the same time, but the chapel was demolished in the
late 20th century, leaving only the facade. About 1865, Lord Acton, the historian, built a
large library wing to the north-east and installed plate glass in many of the
windows of the house.

In the mid 20th
century, Aldenham was let to Lady Rayleigh and her son, the Hon. Guy
Strutt. It was sold in 1947, and decayed
until it was bought by Mr & Mrs Thompson in 1959. They demolished the library wing and restored
the remainder. The grounds have had as complex a history as the house. In 1625 the house looked onto an enclosed garden court, entered through a gatehouse. In 1718 the wrought iron entrance
screen at the end of the avenue was made by Robert Bakewell, although
it was originally set around the forecourt of the house. A watercolour of 1792 by Moses Griffith shows it in this position, and also a further set of gates half-way down the drive; it was moved to its present position, and the lodge built, around 1825. The stables (now converted to a house) were
designed by William Baker in 1750-51.
The original deer park was replanned in
the early 18th century, and by 1722 had been planted as a wilderness, cut
through with rides; a statue of Neptune by Van
Nost survives from this period. The park
was extended and restocked with deer in 1808, and around 1840 an elaborate scrollwork
parterre was laid out by W.A. Nesfield near the house.

A seven-bay, two-storey house
built, probably by Francis Smith, in 1713-14 for Sir Whitmore Acton, shortly
before he inherited Aldenham Park; it was later used as the dower house to that
estate. An agreement of 1715 stipulated
that his aunt, Hester Acton, should ‘cohabitt and dwell with him’ and it seems
likely that she, the widow of two wealthy London merchants, largely paid for
the house; she certainly paid for the furnishing of it. It is a very fine, noble and restrained
design, built in exquisitely laid pink brick with defining accents in warm buff
sandstone ashlar. The main facades have
the three central bays brought forward, but only on the west (garden) side is
there a pediment, which encloses a round-headed window, originally a
niche. The facades are articulated by
giant rusticated pilaster strips that demarcate the centre and the angles, and
have central stone doorcases with segmental pediments on Doric pilasters. There are sash windows with sunk panels
between the storeys. The short ends of
the house, of five bays in all, have the centre three broken strongly forward,
and the south end is dominated by the central round-headed staircase
window.

The interior has been little
altered and is laid out symmetrically, with hall and great parlour in the
centre, rectangular rooms in the four corners, with staircases at either
end. Upstairs, there is a lengthwise
corridor. The original large-fielded panelling
survives throughout, and there is a fine principal staircase with three twisted
balusters to each step. Since the 1970s the house has been restored and embellished by the engagingly eccentric present owner, Huw Kennedy. He created a Gothick library in the south-west room, reusing a stone chimneypiece from Thomas Rickman’s Tettenhall Wood House (Staffs) of the early 1830s, and filled the house with wittily juxtaposed collections, including a great deal of taxidermy. A baboon twines round the dining room chandelier; when asked why, Mr. Kennedy simply says "I hadn't got anywhere else to put it".

In the garden and adjoining fields are other
fragments from Tettenhall Wood House (including a Coade stone tiger),
incorporated into a series of Gothick follies including a summerhouse, an obelisk and a pagoda. In recent years Mr. Kennedy has branched out in an entirely new direction, building a full-sized medieval trebuchet in a field near the house which he uses throw objects as varied as pianos, iron weights and dead animals (the record for a piano is 151 yards - but that was only an upright model; a dead pig goes about 175 yards and a 112 lb iron weight made it to 235 yards). Why? "Because its bloody good fun".